Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GSPEEDWAY e (Left to right) Gary Hicks, Sam Ennolenko, Robert Pfetzing and Brent Werner b attled in heat one. Erm olenk o scored the win. Ermolenko perfect at Costa Mesa By Scott Rousseau Photos by Bob Jon'es and Rousseau COSTA MESA, CA, OCT. 2 orld Ind ividua l Speedway Champion "Sudden" Sam Ermolenko came ho me to the Orange County Fairgrounds, battled his way past a field that incl uded six former Na tional Champ io n s, and e me rged with th e Coors Dry U .S. Nati ona l Sp ee d w ay Championship. The Californian s u rvived a serious cra sh in a p ivotal confron tation w ith defending champion Chris Manchester - just 20 ye ars ol d and went on to post a ma ximum score of 15 points to join Bruce Penhall as the only riders ever to w in the World and U.S . National titles in the same year. Ironically, Ermolenko took the title away from Manchester without ever racing him, as the youngster was excluded from the pair's only head-tohead match-up, for touching the tapes on the restart. A spectator turnout estimated at 5500 was on hand to watch Ermolenko's bid for the title and the $4500 winner's share of the $12,500 purse. Strangely enough , prior to the meeting, Erm olenko wasn't considered the bi g gest threat to take Manchester 's titl e. Insiders had tabbed former two-time Na tional Champion " Fly i n'" M ike Fari a as th e man most likely to regain the title that Manchester had wrestl ed away from him on e year ago. Consequently, Faria 's expectations were sky high . " I w ant it," Fa ria sa id prior to the event. "There was a lot of tal k abo u t the problems that I had thi s year with m y eq uipment. I've g ot some thing to W 10 prove." Likewise, Manchester was confident that he wou ld repeat as the champ ion. "I've got th e n u mber one o n m y back," said Manchester, w ho was spo rt- ing a shaved head and eyebrows for the race . "Th ey've got to chase me." Ermolenko would get the opporunity to d raw firs t blood as he took to the race track in the first heat of the night, joining Brent Werner, Robert Pfetzing and Gary Hi cks. A ft er an abor ted first a ttem pt to get the program star ted w hen the gate malfunction ed, the res tart was a pre view o f thing s to co me - m ore rest arts. On the re s tart, Pfetzing and Er m ole n ko coll id ed while tr yin g to occupy the same spot on the race track. Ermolen ko went down, taking Hicks with him. The second restart was no be tte r as Pfetzing and Hicks b umped each other and again crashed. Pfetzing, who had cracked a collarbone at the Costa Mesa round of the U.S. National Qualifiers, was slow in getting up and in obvious pa in . Referee Bill H ein lein had seen enough and ordered the rid er s behind the wall, opting to s tart heat two and r u n h eat one at th e end of th e first round. Faria 's first rid e came in heat two. He wa s joined by 1987 National Ch ampion Brad Oxley, Charlie Venegas and John Aden. Venegas led the pack into the first turn with Oxley di vi ng to the pol e to take up the chase. Fa ria had go tten a poor start, and was stuck in thi rd place, mak ing a d esp erate atte mpt to catch the leaders. Ju st bef or e Jerry King waved the white flag, Oxley pa rked momentar ily in turn fou r, b ut Faria was too fa r behind to do anything about it. Venegas remained in control for all four laps, taking an im portant win for three poi n ts. Oxley took home tw o points for second, and a disap pointed Faria ended up with a single poin t for finishing third. "I do n't know what the problem is," Faria sai d . "Es peci ally since I ha d the po le. I've go tta go for it." Venegas, on th e other han d, w as encouraged by his good start. "I just went ou t and d id what I cou ld, and what I knew I could d o," Venegas said. "It was on ly th e first hea t, but I believe we ca n ke ep it g o ing fro m there." Ma nchester' made his debut in h eat three along with Steve Lucero, northern Cali fornia Champion Bart Bast, and another tw o-time National Champion, Bobby Schwartz. Manchester s howed the crowd tha t he was se t on keeping his title for ano ther year by taking control of the start and running away from the rest of the field for the win. Lucero beat Schwartz into tum one and held him off for seco nd place. Bast brought up the rear, failing to score a point. Heat four pitted two northern California riders against two riders with exten s ive oversea s experience. Crowd fav orit e Billy Hamill, who had arrived fr om Eu rop e only one day before the event, was starting in gate number four while forme r British leaguer Lance King had the pole. Sandwiched between them . wer e Jim Sisemore and Alan Christian, th e 1985 National Champion. As the tapes flew, Sisem ore se ize d control of the start as King d ropped to the pole in an a tte mp t to knock Hamill to third place. Ch ristian tailed off last and fell in turn four as the field com pleted the first lap . Ch rist ian was quickly up, and the race continued . Hamill and King jockeyed for posi tion w ith Hamill establishing control of second place as he went afte r Sise mo re. But Sisemore rode smoothly to the chec kered flag, taking the win an d the thr ee point s that went with it. Ha mill crossed the line in second, sha king his head as he returned to the pits. The round closed out with the re-run of the opening heat. Ermo lenko grabbed the lead at the start an d scored a con- vincing win over Werner. Hi ck s and Pfe tz ing, m e anwhil e , bumped and ground their way around the tiny Costa Mesa oval in the rear w ith Hicks grabbing the last point. Faria's chances for a third title were dealt another serious blow in the opening heat of rou nd tw o. Coming from ga te three, Faria beat poles itter Hamill to the first tum and looked to be back on form, but a red flag wa s thr own wh en Brent Werner cras hed and Bast layed it down to avo id him. Faria again took the p ole away from Ham ill on th e restart an d ap peared to be headed for his firs t win of the night. Bu t as the rid ers we n t in to tu rn three to con cl u d e lap two, Faria ' s GM exploded , forci ng h im to straig hten up in mid-com er. Hamill had no place to go and slammed into Faria, se n d ing b o th r id e r s to the gro und. Hamill got the worst of it and was down on the track for several minutes. The referee ru led that Faria had caused the crash, and disqualified him. The crowd booed its disapproval of the call as Faria sat on the track in shock, but he was out - his hopes of a third National Championship dashed. Hamill got back on his feet and particip a ted in the resta rt . In an amazing display of poise, he shook off the crash and ble w the field away, going wire to wire over Werner, Bast, a nd reserve rider Bobby Hedden. Man chest er, Venegas and Sisem ore., all ro und one w inners, met in heat six. Ma nches te r again w on in co nvi nci ng fashion over Venegas, Sisemore, an d an off-the-pace Pfe tzing, who p ulled out of the meeting af ter the round, too sore to continue. Er molenko came from gate four in heat seven, facing Lucero, w ho was on the pol e, Kin g and Ox ley . Lucero sto le the s ta r t, b u t Ermolenko stayed close throu gh turn one and tried to take the lea d by going to the inside down the backstraight, and then to the outside in three and four. Lucero held Ermo lenko off; mo m en ta r il y. As they ca me into tum one on the seco nd lap, Ermo lenko square d off th e co rner on th e outsid e and then d ove to the inside to grab the lead coming off tu rn two. Ermolenko held Lucero off for th e remaining two lap s, scoring a popular win and rem aining even on points with Man chester. Aden looped out on the starting line in hea t eight and was d isqualified. On th e restart, Hicks sco red his first and only win of the night by running com fortably in front of a dogfight between Schwartz and Christian. On the last lap, Christian drifted wide just as Schwartz hooked up, and the two raced across the finish line virtually even. The referee awarded Chri s tian s e co n d place. Schwartz, who was not having one of his better nights, was left with third, and Aden's replacement Andy Northrup was fourth in the last heat of the round. The first heat of round three was a controversial one. Venegas led Lucero in to tum one as Christian and Werner brought up the rear. Werner slid out in tum four, tasting the turf one more time while Christian caught Lucero and Venegas on the front straigh t. Venegas parked it hard in tum on e and clearly jumped the inside pole with both tires as Christian laid it down to avoid a collision. The race was red-flagged and referee Heinlein allowed all the riders to restart. Lucero wa s ou traged . "Venegas parked it so bad and then he went into the infield . Then they redflagged it for Alan (Christi an), and they d idn't throw anyone out," Lucero sa id. "Ven egas cross ed th e pipe. That's illega L" Th e ra ce resumed , and Venegas led Christian and a still-angry Lucero across the finish lirie to pick up the three points

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